United States In the U.S., all states except
Hawaii have their K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts. A school district usually operates several
elementary,
middle, and
high schools. The largest urban and suburban districts operate hundreds of schools. While practice varies significantly by state (and in some cases, within a state), most American school districts operate as independent local governmental units under a grant of authority and within geographic limits created by state law. The executive and legislative power over locally controlled policies and operations of an independent school district are, in most cases, held by a school district's board of education. Depending on state law, members of a local board of education (often referred to informally as a
school board) may be elected, appointed by a political office holder, serve
ex officio, or a combination of any of these. An independent school district is a legally separate
body corporate and political. Most school districts operate as independent local governmental units with exclusive authority over K–12 public educational operations and policies. The extent of their control is set by state-level law. Litigation against school districts is common and some law firms specialize in education law. Districts typically maintain professional liability insurance in order to pay its settlements and legal liabilities. In others, such as
Maine, some school districts are able to lay taxes and others are not. school districts were independent governmental units in 26 states, while in 17 states there were mixes of independent school districts and school districts subordinate to other local governments. In nine states there were only school districts subordinate to local governments. In most Southern states, school systems operate either as an arm of county government or at least share coextensive boundaries with the state's counties. A 2010 study by economist William A. Fischel found that "two-thirds of medium-to-large American cities have boundaries that substantially overlap those of a single school district" with substantial regional and state variations in the degree of overlap, "ranging from nearly perfect congruence in
New England, New Jersey, and Virginia, to hardly any in Illinois, Texas, and Florida." Florida school district governments have boundaries that parallel those of counties. According to Fischel, older and more populous municipalities "tend to have boundaries that closely match those of a single school district." The
Hawaii State Department of Education functions as a single statewide school district, unique among states. According to a 2021 study, the demographics of voters who elect local school boards in the United States tend to be different from the demographics of the students. This difference is "most pronounced in majority nonwhite jurisdictions and school districts with the largest
racial achievement gaps."
History There were 130,000 school districts in the country in 1930, with an average student population of 150. From 1942 to 1951 the number of school districts declined from 108,579 to 70,452, a decrease of 38,127 or 35%. Many states had enacted laws facilitating school district consolidation. In 1951 the majority of the school districts in existence were rural school districts only providing elementary education, and some school districts did not operate schools but instead provided transportation to other schools. The
Midwest had a large number of rural school districts. Previously areas of the
Unorganized Borough of
Alaska were not served by school districts but instead served by schools directly operated by the
Alaska Department of Education and by
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools. The state schools were transferred to the Alaska State-Operated School System (SOS) after the
Alaska Legislature created it in 1971; that agency was terminated in 1975, with its schools transferred to the newly created Alaska Unorganized Borough School District, which was broken apart into twenty-one school districts the following year. In the 2022 Census of Governments, the
United States Census Bureau enumerated the following numbers of school systems in the United States: • 12,546 school district governments • 571 county-dependent school systems • 227 municipal-dependent school systems • 36 state-dependent school systems • 479 township-dependent school systems School districts in the US have reduced the number of their employees by 3.3%, or 270,000 between 2008 and 2012, owing to a decline in property tax revenues during and after the
Great Recession. By 2016 there were about 13,000 school districts, and the average student population was about 5,000. • The word
community in a district's name indicates that the district is formed to serve a community of people with common interests and associations and with a community center. • The word
free in a district's name indicates that no tuition is charged to attend district schools. In New York, it is used in conjunction with the
union to indicate a district composed of multiple, formerly independent common school districts now
free of restrictions placed on New York State's common school districts. • The word
union or
consolidated in a district's name indicates that it was formed from two or more districts. • In
Missouri, most district names include a
C- or, more commonly, an
R- followed by a number, commonly in
Roman numerals (i.e. "
Fox C-6 School District", "
Mehlville R-IX School District", etc.) Both are used to represent consolidated school districts, but
C- indicates that the district was consolidated through the consent of voters, while
R- indicates that the district was consolidated by the state government. • The word
joint in a district's name indicates that it includes territory from more than one county. By extension, a
joint state school district, such as
Union County–College Corner JSD, includes territory in more than one state. • The word
independent can have different meanings, depending on the state. •
Kentucky — Under
Kentucky Revised Statutes § 160.020, an "Independent" district is defined as one whose jurisdiction does not cover an entire county. If
a county has no independent district, its school district boundaries coincide exactly with its borders. Following the most recent closure of
an independent district in 2019, the state has 52 independent school districts along with 120 county districts, with the most significant concentrations of independent districts found in
Northern Kentucky and the
Eastern Coalfield region. These districts are generally associated with a city, or sometimes with a cluster of adjoining cities. Unlike county districts, independent districts can cross county lines, as in the
Caverna Independent School District centered on
Cave City and
Horse Cave and the
Corbin Independent School District. Some districts in the state are independent despite not having "Independent" in their official name, as in the
Owensboro Public Schools and
Paducah Public Schools. •
Minnesota — Per Minnesota Statute 120A.05, "Independent" denotes any school district validly created and existing as an independent, consolidated, joint independent, county, or a ten or more township district , or under the Education Code. •
Texas — Here, "Independent" denotes that the district is separate from any county- or municipal-level entity. All of the state's school districts are independent of any municipal or county control; this includes the state's sole municipal school district,
Stafford Municipal School District. Moreover, school district boundaries rarely coincide with municipal limits or county lines. Most districts use the term "Independent School District" in their name; in the few cases where the term "Common School District" is used, the district is still an independent governmental entity. An independent school district resulting from a consolidation of two or more independent school districts is called a consolidated independent school district, sometimes abbreviated as "CISD". • In
Ohio, school districts are classified as either
city school districts,
exempted village school districts, or
local school districts. City and village school districts are exempted from county boards of education, while local school districts remain under county school board supervision. School districts may combine resources to form a fourth type of school district, the joint vocational school district, which focuses on a technical skills-based curriculum. • In
Michigan, there are
intermediate school districts (ISD), regional education service districts (RESD), or regional education service agencies (RESA), largely at the county level. The local school districts run the schools and most programs, but often bilingual aides, programs for the deaf and blind, special education for the severely impaired, and career and technical education programs are run by the intermediate school district or equivalent. • County-wide school districts are most commonly found in Mid-Atlantic and Southern states such as
Maryland,
West Virginia,
Virginia,
North Carolina,
South Carolina,
Georgia,
Florida,
Alabama,
Arkansas,
Mississippi,
Louisiana,
Tennessee, and
Kentucky. Nevada and Utah also have mostly county-wide school districts, and Alaska has many
borough-wide school districts.
Hawaii operates its schools at the state level through its
department of education. • In
Maine, there are
regional school units wherein smaller districts were consolidated into RSUs in 2008 when state laws changed. ==Europe==